


Eat It

by NaNCollective



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, kids hangin out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-09
Packaged: 2019-01-28 08:26:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12602440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NaNCollective/pseuds/NaNCollective
Summary: Dally is with his sister Joan and best friend Kaya, walking out to the "forest". And Harold is a butt-face.





	1. Harold is a butt-face

"Harold is being a butt-face," Joan's squeaky little-kid voice dipped dramatically on the word butt, and she made that obnoxious fart sound. What a performer. Kaya's laughing at her though, so it must not be all that obnoxious. Maybe she'll be a comedian or something.

"No, really, this time he's really being a butt-face." Kaya isn't laughing as much now, and Joan seems irritated? Is this actual tension or playful tension? 

Kaya looks over and smiles at me with her eyebrows up. So definitely playful. Probably. Her eyebrows would be lower if the atmosphere actually went bad. Maybe.

Joan moans extra loud and looks up at the sky like maybe it will take her away. "Will you two PLEAse cut that out? I don't wanna be your third-wheel on some weird teenage make-out eyes." 

"What even Are make-out eyes? You keep sayin' that and I don't get it." 

We're closing in on that part of the treeline that looks a bit hollowed out. Kaya says she's never been in a forest and this totally counts so we're going.

"You know what I mean Dally, you just don't wanna stop." 

Kaya coughs in her hand like it's some kinda signal and says all loud and flat, "what was it about Harold? That makes him a butt-face?" Oh kay so that was a subject change signal. That makes sense. Joan shouldn't feel like a third wheel but she's pretty convinced she is one. Doesn't matter what either of us says about it. 

"He wants to go to the movies with me. And I told him I'm not going without Dally and he just said that's fine, like he doesn't know that was a polite 'get lost' and not an invite to a group date." 

"Sounds like he wants to be your friend, Joan. What about that's butt-facey? Ain't it just good taste?" Joan just doesn't like people. 

"Yea Joan, maybe you should hang out with him some time? You could like him!" That is some sound advice from Kaya. Joan's lookin' like we don't get it though.

"You don't understand! He's not even from here! What can we possibly talk about? We have nothing in common. We'd just stare off in the distance till the awkward blew us up and then Dally wouldn't have a sister and-well he'd have a sister but he wouldn't have me-and Harold's dad would cry and vow revenge and the whole town would be a war zone!" 

"Or you'd stare off in the distance 'til you found something to talk about and then you'd be best friends and conquer the world. You don't know." There's really no point in trying to gauge how much of this is Joan seriously not wanting to hang out with Harold and how much is just for show until they're alone together. Kaya and Joan are pretty close but Joan doesn't really do 100% serious around anyone else.

"We really don't have to go in there." Is Kaya really nervous? She looks energetic but that could be nervous or excited or really kinda anything. 

"Yea walking into a bunch of trees is totally the start to some cheesy horror movie or something. Dally should go first." Aw she's letting me go first. That's sweet. How nice. 

"You're saying that to be mean, right? I go first and I get murdered and you guys run away safe? That's fair I guess."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written by: Stefanie Gold


	2. Trees and Sounds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harold tries to join the group but gets a little sidetracked.

Joan is a mystery, and Harold is interested.

Not, like, That Way. Just like. 

Whatever.

Joan acts kinda weird and Harold wants to be friends with her. She doesn't seem to be friends with anyone at school. The only person Harold's seen her talk to in like an actual conversation is her brother and that one girl. She's always drawin' in her notes in class and she draws really awesome stuff. Like eyes and feet and a flower eating a bee. 

So anyway, Harold's following her. Not on purpose, just they walk the same way home. It sorta turns in to following her, though, 'cause Harold can hear her talking and he wants to know what she's saying and he can't do that if she knows he's there. 

He doesn't get close enough to hear what she's sayin' 'till Joan and them are at that patch of trees near their neighborhood and they all start traipsing on through the brush like they're going hiking or something. 

That sounds kinda fun actually. 

Harold makes his way to the trees and past the funky lookin' bush and then suddenly the sounds are all different. Not in a foresty way though, 'cause that'd make sense. This just sounds like everything turned off.

No cars or people talking or even birds bein' loud like usual. 

Wait. No people talking. Where's Joan and them? 

That's totally not okay. Harold's gotta try to find her. 

"JOAN!! Joan where the heck. You were just here! Where'd y'all go? I wasn't following you!" Really Harold wasn't following anybody. 

"Sounds like you were following her," a voice out of NOwhere is the first thing Harold even hears 'cept his own screaming. And it's creepy as heck 'cause it's comin' from a tree. 

"I wasn't though! Do you think she'll think I was following her?" There is absolutely no reason for Harold to be talking to this tree. This tree is a stranger and it's totally judging Harold for following Joan around. 

"I have no idea what she'll think," the trees voice moved over a bit so...maybe it isn't the tree. Or maybe it's all the trees! "I have no idea who Joan is, how am I supposed to know what she'll think of you following her?"

"She's the girl who just walked through here with the other two! She's the shorter one." Joan is kinda short and plus Dally and the other girl are way older so they're pretty tall. 

The voice is a bit further to the left this time when the trees say, "there hasn't been anyone here today except for you. You're the first person I've seen for a while," which is creepy and weird and has to be a lie.

"I know she's here! I saw her!" 

"Yea, well, trees are weird. And you're not very good at following." 

"I'm great at following! And what do you have against trees? Ain't you trees?" 

"Ha!" A ghost appears way too close to Harold and he squeaks like a freakin' mouse and almost falls when he backs up too fast 'cause GHOST. "Man I ain't trees. I hate trees. All I see all day is trees." 

"Can't you just leave? You can fly right? You're flying right now!" 

"I'm FLOATing right now. Flying's different." 

That doesn't seem right. Those are the same thing. Her feet aren't touching the ground.

"Your feet arent touching the ground! Just fly away!"

"I'm telling you I can't fly! Why would I just. No. I'm not explaining the difference between flying and floating. I can't just go where I want. I have to wait for somebody to take me someplace and no one's ever here!"

"How'd you get here then?" And where is Joan? She might just be hiding. Maybe she can see ghosts better than Harold can and she stayed clear of this one. 

"I got carried here. I just told you someone's gotta take me places. How else would I have got here? Jeeze what are you, twelve?" 

She scoffed like that's a bad thing but, "Yes." Loads of people say twelve like it's a bad thing. That's just dumb. Twelve's okay.

"Yea that figures. Hey, would you mind? I just, really super have to get out of these trees. I'm going crazy here. Trees trees trees. They change but it takes So Long I can hardly even tell. Please. Take me with you. Even if you're just gunna go be weird and follow some girl around. Please." She keeps getting quieter and by that last please Harold can hardly even hear her. 

"Yea of course you can come along! You can tell Joan I wasn't following her!" 

"Oh for the love of. Fine. Yea. Thank you."

"No problem."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written by: Stefany Cold


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dally meets Harold and there's definitely something butt-facey about him. Kaya is creeped out at least.

Roaming around in the forest in search of hidden treasure was never my idea of a good time. Kaya was really just that good at making me do stuff. Sometimes at Joan’s exasperation. But sometimes I feel that Joan gets her way more often than I do. Kinda has to be that way since she’s younger. I needed to look the part of an older brother too. Joan doesn’t really hang out with people her age that often and it concerns me. That’s part of the reason that I always invite her to our little “adventures”. 

Well… and Kaya was going. But that’s besides the point…

I stepped closer to a denser area of the woods as the girls watched from behind. I put on a scowl and surveyed the area around me.  
“Hey! Do you see a serial killer yet?”, yelled Kaya.

Always a joker.

“I don’t know why don’t you come here and find out?”

There was really nothing out here. There were some stories about old abandoned buildings and stuff out here. I tried to look further in the woods, but all I saw were more trees. I guess it can be pretty easy to get lost out here if you’re not careful. 

Kaya and Joan walked up right behind me. I was pretty engrossed in what I was doing that if the crackle of the leaves wasn’t there I wouldn’t notice that they snuck up right behind me.

Now that I think about it, that’s probably not a good thing.

“Boo!”

Kaya tried to scare me. Unsuccessfully might I add. 

But I pretended to be scared.

Not a lot, but just a little bit. You know… just to make her enjoy herself a little bit more.

Dang, she really is good at making me do stuff.

“What are you a kid?”, Joan mockingly said.

“You’re more of a kid than I am!”

I continued to joke around with Joan, chasing her around while making a mental note of where we came from. The tree with the weird cracked bark and lanky arms points in the general direction back to the street. I really didn’t want to lose my bearings out here. Kaya was looking at us goofing around. 

I stopped for a minute to catch my breath. And looked for the tree. There it goes. 

“Hey I think we should head back towards the street. This counts as visiting the forest, right Kaya?”

I looked at her. 

I knew she was unsatisfied.

“I guess, but I can still see the sun up.”

What does she mean? Of course it is! It’s like she WANTED to go into a forest at night. Not a super good idea.

I must steel myself! There is absolutely no way she can convince me to stay until sundown!

“Hmmm, I don’t know… I think that we should stay a bit longer.”, Kaya said a little playfully.

I looked at Joan.

“I just don’t want to bump into butt-face Harold. That guy is creepy and I swear sometimes he looks at my drawings without permission.”

“Kaya, I just don’t think it’s a good idea to be out here that long.”

“But you said there weren’t any serial killers!”, she complained.

“Yeah, well, the Predator wasn’t a serial killer and that dude seriously wasn’t as friendly as his face suggested.”

“What? The Predator? Is that from some TV show or something?”

I forgot that Kaya wasn’t really into old movies. Maybe I can invite her over to watch it someday….

Wait! That’s not the point. 

“Who cares about Predator, the point is, we gotta get back to the main road.”

I heard some shuffling around as all of a sudden Joan started to move behind my back.

“Wha- what are you doing Joan!”

“Shhhhhhhhh!”, she whispered.

What was going on?

Ah. We were making all this noise that we didn’t notice that there was a kid in the distance walking over to us. I think that Joan was standing right behind a tree to the kid’s vantage point so he didn’t see her. Butt-face Harold? I didn’t know for sure if this was him, but Joan did say that he was bothering her. Or trying to become friends with her. She’s just that anti-social.

I moved Joan over behind the tree to my right rather clumsily. Hopefully he didn’t notice. He wasn’t really looking at our direction. He was looking kind of to his right… talking? To what? Maybe an imaginary friend? Maybe Joan was right and butt-face Harold was a creep-o. 

Kaya moved right beside me. She got pretty close. Alright I need to keep my cool. I can totally deal with butt-face Harold.

He looked up at us. He looked…. A little panicked? I don’t even know how to describe his face. He looked fairly…. Normal. The kid had a longish face that doesn’t really fit his shorter stature. His black hair was a little long, but not unkempt. He looked up to me and then to his right and then back to us as if he expected a reaction out of us.

“What’s up….?”, I cautiously greeted what was presumably butt-face Harold.

“Hey….umm where’s Joan?”, he said.

“She didn’t come with us. Wait, how do you know her? Are you her friend? What’s your name?”

“Ummm….”, He looked to his right again for a little while. Why does he keep doing that?

“Ummm…. All I wanted to do was talk….. for a bit.”, his voice seemed a bit more sure this time as he looked towards the tree Joan had hidden behind.

Did he see me hide her behind the tree? There’s no way he could of from that angle, and again he looks to his right. I think I heard him whisper something like “They can’t see you”, but I was trying to focus on getting this kid’s name out. 

Kaya was really close now. Was she scared? She was looking to the kid’s right…. What is it about that empty space. There’s nothing there.   
Whoa she’s getting closer. What? Butt-face Harold? I don’t know who that is. She’s getting closer… what’s going on….

“Do you see that?”, Kaya whispered into my ear. I would be enjoying the sensation more if I wasn’t totally confused as to what she was referring to.

“See what?” I looked over to the empty void beside the butt-face. Nope nothing there.

“I think I want to get out of here Dally.”, again Kaya whispered to me panicked. Her eyebrows were lowered. Oh…. This was serious.

Still confused I decided to reiterate.

“Hey kid, enough messing around. What’s your name? Joan isn’t here.”

He looked at me. Right at me. A little scared and maybe a little bit mad. Maybe both. This kid was really freaking me out right now. 

“My name is Harold and I know you’re lying to me.”

Kaya was really holding on to my arm now. Freaking Harold was really ruining this for me.

“Harold, I think you should leave. Kids shouldn’t be out here this late, and I don’t know what you’re talking about.”, I said rather sternly.

He looked over to the tree that Joan was hiding behind again. And then over to me. What is up with this kid?

“Ok.”, he plainly stated.

He turned around and started walking at a calm pace. What the heck? Kaya was still gripping on to my arm. Why was she so creeped? I wasn’t afraid at some creeped kid. What really got me was the Kaya wasn’t really being like herself. I noticed that he headed in the direction of the tree I noticed before. Cracked bark and lanky arms. Back to the street. Joan stepped out from behind the tree and walked to my side.

“I told you he was a butt-face creep.”, Joan said.

I looked over to Kaya. She started to cry into my arms. What the hell did she see? 

 

\---

 

That afternoon I walked Kaya back to her place. She had calmed down by the time we reached the main street. Joan was quiet the entire way probably just as confused as we were. It gets dark pretty early around these parts, so I made sure to stay on the main road to make sure we were always by some light, even though I knew that it would take longer to get to where we needed to go. 

We were quiet the entire way. Kaya wasn’t holding on to me anymore, regrettably. Actually, it looked like she just wanted to get away from me. She walked more slowly than usual with her arms crossed. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just the cool autumn air that made her shiver. I just don’t know what it was that creeped her out so much. But I knew that I needed to take my time with these things. Sometimes the stuff that freaks us out isn’t very rational. I knew that just because of my experience with my sisters.

It took us a little over 45 minutes to get to her house. I would have only taken us about 15 if we took some of the short cuts through the community. The walk back to our house would take us another 30 just because we were walking the other direction on the main road. Otherwise just 10 would have done the job.

I told Joan to wait by the mailbox where I could see her as I dropped Kaya off. I hoped her Dad didn’t see me. If he saw Kaya this spooked I’m pretty sure he would assume that I was the guy that did something. And if my luck was to be any indication of what would happen, he’d be the first one at the door.

And…. I was right.

“Hey, you got here kinda late. I was worried about you Kaya.”, said the older looking man. 

He was probably in his mid-40s had greying black hair and looked older than his actual age. I never really liked this dude cause he always assumes that I am a bad influence on his daughter. I thought it would get better over the years that I’ve known her, but it’s only gotten worse.

Kaya seemed like she was in a rush to get inside. And boy did her Dad notice.

He shot me a concerned face. Kinda like those that you get from teachers from doing something stupid in the hallways. Or maybe an extreme version of that.  
“I want an explanation about this tomorrow. Get home, it’s getting late. I don’t want to get another worried call from your Aunt about you guys going off somewhere without permission again because you got another great idea for an adventure.”, he sternly said.

Yep. Definitely more extreme. 

Also it isn’t me that comes up with these things! It’s her! 

I decided not to say anything and just nodded. I’m going to have to come up with something tomorrow. Usually I just tell the truth and get in trouble, but this time it looks like I’m going to have to come up with some random story… and still get in trouble for it. There’s no winning here.

I nodded and walked back to Joan.

We walked a little further back towards our house. I turned at Joan.

“Do you know why she was so scared? Did you notice anything? Was Harold carrying something behind his back or something?”

I knew he wasn’t, but maybe she knows something I don’t.

“I just thought she was crying because Kaya noticed he was a creepy butt-face. I wanted to cry too.”, she retorted.

I would laugh if I wasn’t so concerned.

When we got home that night I made sure to tell Joan to hit the sack early. I knew that tomorrow she would have to see that Harold guy. I was worried now.  
I noticed that I had a text from Kaya. She sent it soon after we left her place. It was a short message. Short and sweet. I was still confused about what she was talking about, but now I knew this was something I had to look more into. If not for Kaya, then for Joan, who regularly met with this Harold.

I saw him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written by: Sunny Husky


End file.
